It is customary in Egypt for films that portray sensitive political issues to be censored and/or banned from screening, and often the Egyptian Censorship Committee does not provide a clear justification for its decisions.
The latest film to be censored is “Lailat Suqoot Baghdad” (The Night of the Fall of Baghdad), which has been banned from screening.
The film’s production company announced that “the film will not been screened due to technical problems,” but sources claim that the Censorship Committee banned the film due to the precarious nature of the current political situation in the region.
Sources also claim that the American Embassy in Cairo had opposed some of the scenes, which feature the lead actor Hassan Hussni watching a television interview with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Later on his character goes to bed and dreams of making love to an African American woman.
A member of the Censorship Committee denied that the US Embassy was involved in the committee’s decision not to screen the film, and stressed that the Embassy had not even requested to watch the film.
“The film makers postponed its screening themselves due to minor alterations,” the member claimed.
The plot of the film revolves around a school principal who watches the fall of Baghdad on television and afterwards begins to have nightmares that the same thing will happen to Egypt.
The film is the first this year to face problems with the Censorship Committee.
